True Friends Won't Keep Talks Polarized

MARCELA SANCHEZ WASHINGTON POST WRITERS GROUP

January 31, 2003|MARCELA SANCHEZ WASHINGTON POST WRITERS GROUP

In order to understand the crisis in Venezuela, one must live it. There is no doubt about that. Last week, representatives of the polarized forces that are ripping that South American nation apart made their pilgrimage to Washington. Their only shared intention, it seems, was to act out their drama on a world stage.

If their words were any indication, a solution to the problem is as distant as ever. Each side has mastered the fine art of pointing the finger at the other. It is they, one said of the other, who have used a position of privilege to call for discord, violence and death. Both seemed determined not to make the least concession to the other, who, after all, was the true enemy of democracy.

Each side, of course, was making an effort to offer its best diagnosis of the crisis. If the symptoms are not recognized, Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton explained, how can one prescribe a cure?

True. Yet one was left with the impression that both were spending far more time, passion and talent revealing the depth of their suffering than seeking a salve to soothe it.

The two sides seemed to agree most on one complaint: The world fails to understand their dilemma. No surprise then that they both endorsed, as the first step of international response to a crisis that could no longer be ignored, the creation of a Group of Friends to take part in negotiations between the Venezuelan government and the opposition.

The group might satisfy that desire for international attention. But more critically, it should make everyone realize that world attention and understanding does not necessarily translate into adopting wholesale the view of one side or the other.

Various Washington analysts concurred this week that the group could be especially helpful in restoring confidence to the discussions and pressing Venezuelans to alter their apocalyptic rhetoric. It also could exert pressure to explore compromise solutions and help to reinforce them -- although it is hard to imagine any pressure greater than that imposed in the last two months by the Venezuelan opposition's devastating national strike.

It is too early to tell how successful the Friends will be. Somewhat predictably, the initial meeting of its foreign ministers and their deputies here last week ended with few concrete results.

More importantly, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, speaking on behalf of the six member states (Brazil, Chile, Spain, Mexico, Portugal and the United States), sent forth one very essential message: Solutions to the problems in Venezuela must come from Venezuelans.

That message may seem simplistic. Yet the point here is that the Group of Friends could prove to be useless especially if its existence becomes yet another excuse for inaction.

During the 1990s, many Colombians looked abroad for solutions. Worn down by an internal conflict that had spun out of control, many looked especially to the United States as the only source of hope for a solution. At the end of the day, however, with Washington unwilling to be the savior and their own internal crisis worsening, the Colombians seemed to recognize the need to do more for themselves.

In situations like the one in Venezuela, self-examination is not easy. It is easier, even comforting, to look abroad and grab convenient, predictable, ever-assuring allies. President Hugo ChM-avez seems to have just such a find in the Cuban leader Fidel Castro; and, curiously but not surprisingly, the Venezuelan opposition has found its own version of the same in Castro's archenemy -- the Cuban exile community, especially of Miami.

Castro and the exiles are neither friends in need nor friends in deed. Their approach to their own country's situation has resulted in a diplomatic impasse four decades long. Given the level of tension present now, Venezuela needs open minds on the sidelines, not cheerleaders. Of what value are friends more interested in pulling apart the two sides than bringing them together?

The intensity of Venezuela's strike appeared to be subsiding this week but this is no time to declare winners or losers. A true victory won't be something claimed but something gained. The Group of Friends might help Venezuelans realize the need for another type of sacrifice -- the one that brings them together instead of tearing them apart.

Write to Marcela Sanchez at The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071. E-mail her at desdewash@washpost.com.